The moves, which could lead to an extraordinary general meeting within eight weeks, were made as an independent panel issued a damning report on the £1.1bn accounting scandal at the Japanese firm, urging legal action against executives behind the cover-up and the replacement of others who knew about it.

Woodford, who said the report "completely vindicated" him, added: "I have been meeting some of the world's largest fund managers and investment banks and they have said they are keen for me to head up the company on a reformist agenda." The plan would involve resisting any break-up of Olympus while keeping its public listing, though the latter depends on a delayed earnings report being filed by a December 14 deadline.

Woodford stunned corporate Japan in October by revealing he had been fired for exposing huge advisory fees paid by Olympus and the resulting scandal caused the company's shares to halve.

The 178-page report into the affair, which used far tougher language than had been expected, said: "The core part of management was rotten and the parts around it were also contaminated by the rot … In the worst possible sense, the situation was that of the tribal culture of the Japanese salaryman." The panel criticised the camera maker's external auditors but it found no link with organised crime.